Wedding Planning – A Groom’s Perspective

When I proposed to my wife, I have to admit I did not think I was prepared for the planning a wedding hurricane that followed. You may be asking yourself, hurricane? Yes, I like to joke that on the day of our engagement, I created Hurricane Danielle.

Thinking back, I was probably naïve and thought that planning a wedding would be relatively simple and consist of just calling a few places, renting tuxes, and getting to the church on the wedding day. I quickly learned though that I drastically underestimated the amount of work that planning a wedding required. I never realized how much thought could possibly go into choosing napkin colors, designing invitations, or finding the perfect knife to cut the wedding cake. However, if your significant other is anything like my wife, these are details that are very important and cannot be overlooked.

Most women, my wife included, have likely turned to their imagination since they were little girls to orchestrate their perfect wedding day. They have fantasized about the “big day” and in their minds have a crystal clear picture of what their wedding will look like. Little did I know, my own wedding was probably planned well before I ever even met my wife, I was simply the last piece needed to make her wedding dreams come true.

Throughout the wedding planning process, I was repeatedly reminded that “every small detail adds up.” This common phrase was something that I did not fully appreciate until the wedding day. Although I did not understand the chaos of planning a wedding in the months leading up to the wedding, the minute I walked into our reception everything made sense. Every detail, as little as I thought some were, all came together perfectly and created the absolute perfect wedding day. I give my wife a hard time about how irrational she may have been at times during the wedding planning process, but she knew EXACTLY what she wanted our wedding to be and she put in an unbelievable amount of work to make her vision come true. Her determination and focus created a day we and our guests will never forget.

One specific detail in the wedding planning that will always stand out in my mind was our first dance. We both were not big fans of the usual boring first dance idea, so she suggested that we take dance lessons. At first, not being a big dancer, I was hesitant to agree. However, she had a vision of what a choreographed dance could add to our wedding day and she was persistent in recruiting me to the idea. I eventually caved and went along with the dance lessons and I have to admit it was one of the best decisions I have made. We performed our dance when we were first introduced at the reception and it was a major success. It was very fun, classy, and played a major role in creating a great atmosphere for our reception. And the best part of it all was that we actually kept the idea a secret from everyone, which allowed it to be a complete surprise for all of our guests, making it that much more exciting.

With that said, my advice to future grooms in planning a wedding would be to respect her vision, have input and be supportive, but for the most part let her go with her ideas and trust that it will all come together perfectly!